


in my end you are my beginning.

by librastrai



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, F/M, Pregnancy, Prompt Fic, Two Shot, Unplanned Pregnancy, cat baby im so sorry, dear lord my first chapter fic & it's ANGST, emerald is JUST BABY, hazel does a good thing, mercury is bad at handling things, prompt fic that got out of control, tyrian is a GRADE A FREAK & we love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-11-19
Packaged: 2021-03-05 21:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25991845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/librastrai/pseuds/librastrai
Summary: Emerald sat with all her worries, crushing in her chest, while he’d gone through the motions of a training long taught. His heart hadn’t been in it. Neither of their hearts had since they’d come to this oppressive, suffocating place. Rats trapped in a barrel.They couldn’t stay trapped anymore. This changed everything.*Emerald and Mercury find themselves with a choice to make.
Relationships: Mercury Black/Emerald Sustrai
Comments: 12
Kudos: 46





	1. the end.

Very little could keep Mercury’s mouth quiet ; trust her, she’d tried. A little over three years Emerald had put up with every little quip, every charged retort with them chest to chest, lips a hair’s breadth apart. Fury burning in her gaze up at Mercury while he was always so fucking slick, cocky bastard. Thought he was the God’s gift to the world. Emerald thought he was put here just to _torment her_ for something she’d done in a past life.

She would’ve told him this years ago just for a moment of peace. Sure, it would’ve been a joke but still.

Now it felt like Remnant’s biggest joke was being played on the pair of them. Mercury was sat on the steps of the main hall, a reversed mirror image of how they’d been little less than a week ago. Emerald sat with all her worries, crushing in her chest, while he’d gone through the motions of a training long taught. His heart hadn’t been in it. Neither of their hearts had since they’d come to this oppressive, suffocating place. Rats trapped in a barrel.

They couldn’t stay trapped anymore. This changed _everything._

“Will you just say something? _Anything?_ ”

Mercury’s head snapped up at the brittle order from the woman in front of him, steel violet eyes still faraway. A slight tremble to his hands. He felt ... he felt like he was going to be sick. _Proved your old man right didn’t you, boy._ Jaw clenched razor tight. _Gone n’ got the stupid bitch up the duff. What’re you gonna do now? Play Mommies and Daddies with her? Be just like me?_ “Shut up.”

“ _Excuse me?_ ”

“No, I —” He tried, words couldn’t make it past his lips with the way Mercury felt like he was being strangled. Paled skin felt clammy to the touch, he felt too hot. Fuck, what had he done? “Emerald —” _C’mon boy. You’re no daddy, certainly not here. Biggest mercy you could give her would be puttin’ that thing out of commission before you’re both stuck with it. What i woulda’ done_ —

“ _ **S**_ ** _hut up!_ **”

He hadn’t meant it. Not like that. He’d struck out in his fear, his desperation & oh, _Emerald._ Whatever had been built in their time together, the bond of being two rats left on a piece of driftwood, all they had was each other — he’d ruined it in that moment. Her eyes were wide, pupils pin pricked. Resting on her heels, she looked like a beaten dog ready to flee, and it killed him. Emerald never looked at him like that, so many times she’d look at him with disdain, a playful glance, burning anger; not with fear. She was _afraid_ of him.

 _You’ll get over that look, son. They all look at you that way at the end._ He wants to curl his fingers into a fist, but instead he reaches out for her. When he glances down to see her hand curled over the plane of her still flat stomach, he feels sick. “ _Emerald._ ”

“ _ **D**_ ** _on’t._** ” Voice cold, freezing; all fear seemed to drain from the girl, replaced with a burning hatred he’d never seen before. It chilled him to the core. If she could, he’d be charred cinders on the spot right now. "Forget it.” With that, the green haired girl turned on her heel to storm out of the grand hall before Mercury could stop her, hand hanging out in the space she left behind. A shaky inhale and his teeth grit, eyes screwed shut. Fingers curled into a fist. He wanted to scream.

 _Better now than later. She’ll get rid of it & you can carry on staying _ **_right where you belong_** _, right_ _?_

Mercury wanted to rage. Instead, shoulders slumped and he sat back down on the cold marble steps. Head in his hands, fingers tugging at silver strands so tight they could almost pull from the roots. The pain didn’t make it any better.

He didn’t know what would.

“Oh now, isn’t this a heart wrenching scene?”

Blood ran cold in his veins as Mercury’s head snapped up, fingers releasing silver strands so they could ball into fists, the mercenary quickly rising to his feet. Quick to shed any semblance of weakness that clung to him, shake it off before it could leave way for the scorpion to strike. Drip poison like honey ichor into the still open wound in his chest, aching, bleeding. Weight rested easy on his toes as his body tensed under the tracksuit that swamped his frame. Mercury had never been deprived of muscle, not with the perfect killer Marcus wanted to beat him into like a piece of steel; but these last few months . . . well. Evernight didn’t do much in aiding his appetite.

“Get lost, _freak._ ”

A soft click of his tongue and Tyrian deigned to emerge from the shadows, as dramatic as ever. Even the sound of the faunus’ feet against the floor, the mechanical shutter and click of his prosthetic tail swaying behind him, it never failed to set a chill down Mercury’s spine. Marcus had scared him, far more than any father ever should, but _Tyrian_ ; with those blank, deep set eyes that seemed to see everything ... _they_ **_terrified_ ** _him. T_ he angered front he put up could only shield so much and he hated how Tyrian seemed to _smell_ his fear.

“Now now, that’s no way to speak to someone merely coming to offer some advice.” Pearly whites of Tyrian’s smile seemed unnaturally sharp, more like a wolf than a scorpion. Mercury fought down the urge to run when the faunus slinked closer, muscles in his jaw cinched tight from the emotions he swallowed down, fighting the urge to choke. He’d already made a mistake in their last encounter, having gotten too angry, too brash. Tyrian had taken him down like it was nothing. Now the only response mercury would give was a sharp scoff.

“Hard pass. Last time was enough for me.”

“ _Ah!_ Last time, you didn’t know of your soon to be little bundle of joy, now did you?”

His blood froze at that. Did everyone in this fucking hellhole know besides him? Pupils constricted some as a strangled breath was exhaled, teeth ground together so harshly mercury thought one of them was bound to crack under the pressure. Emerald wouldn’t of told Tyrian anything, which meant —

Mercury didn’t think as his fists bunched in the white lapels of the scorpion’s shirt, faces an inch apart as a fire burned in violet greys. He couldn’t think, not beyond the fact that Tyrian had been spying, on him, on Emerald, on the fact that their child — did Salem know? Tyrian’s laugh echoing around the hall only infuriated him further. “What did I tell you!” _Back off, freak._ On their return to Evernight, his hand had been firm on Emerald’s shoulder to guide her away in the face of Tyrian’s insane dribble. Now he was doubting whether anything this freak did was ever truly stemming from his “insanity”, everything was so cold and calculated. Like they were chess pieces, and he knew every move to be made on the board. Tyrian only pressed further into his space, the pair chest to chest, faces little more than a hair’s width apart and Mercury recoiled. Kept his grip on the bunched up cloth but — Gods, how did Tyrian manage to unnerve him so easily?

“That’s your problem, my dear boy.” Boy. Mercury felt his stomach churn, grip slacking so he could push the other away. Try and gain space needed desperately. Tyrian didn’t falter however, easily crossing the space between them so Mercury had no choice but to bare his own teeth. “You tell people, oh you tell them all sorts. I’m sure you told our dear street rat plenty the night you took her to bed and conceived your little accident —”

“ ** _Shut up!_ ** ” Once again he was folly to his anger. Once again, Mercury found himself in the very familiar situation of being stuck on his back, Tyrian atop him in a dazzling, _terrifying_ display of his speed and agility. The only difference this time being the sharp sting of cold under his jaw, Tyrian’s stinger nestled there like an old friend. There was no more playfulness in the faunus’ eyes, the violet light of them cold and dead.

“You would do well, my boy, to _listen. S_ he has. She will run and then I will _finally_ ,” an inhaled breath, it was laboured in his own pleasure, excitement dripping from every word as the only semblance of humanity bled into violet eyes with the word. “Be able to rid my goddess of Cinder’s castaway.”

The implicit threat was like a punch to his gut. All rational thought, all of his anger and fear, washed away in the face of one thought, one name, repeating over and over.

_Emerald._

Tyrian rose from where he was atop the frozen boy, all with his regular dramatic flourish. Hands came to spread aside his body, hands outstretched ; all with that mocking grin down at Mercury. He knew that his words had lit a spark. “Listen wisely. You’ve been playing blind for far too long.” With that, the scorpion faunus turned on his heel to saunter out of the grand hall, knowing Watts would lose what little patience he had left for his partner if forced to wait for Tyrian’s arrival in Atlas much longer. However ... he had no issue with making the good doctor wait a little while longer if the pair acted in accord to his plans. Either mercury would stay in Evernight, a frozen, heartless weapon like he had desperately deluded himself into believing he was. Or, he would join his beloved street rat in the final step towards both their ends.

Oh, he was almost _giddy_ with anticipation. What a second act to wait for.

* * *

She was so _fucked._

Emerald felt downright nauseous, heart beating against her rib cage so hard it felt like a rib would crack, but she couldn’t _stop. T_ o make it this far at all ... she had to keep running. Hazel had helped her, the thief having almost collapsed when she’d been caught slinking around the halls of Evernight by the hulking behemoth of a man. Her first thought had been that she was caught, done for. Salem would kill her and her child, her _baby_ ... she would’ve failed.

_“Follow me.” His voice had been low and gruff, but safe. Emerald had rarely ever felt safe. When all instincts told her she should run, she had ignored them to follow Hazel down sloping tunnels and winding corridors until they came out to a cliffside. There, a bulkhead had been waiting and Emerald’s knees buckled, the girl held up only by Hazel’s grasp on her arms. When she’d turned to look up at him, there had been tears in bright red eyes._

_“Why are you doing this?”_

_Hazel had only given a short shake of his head, a heart wrenching sorrow in his eyes as he turned her around and guided her to the platform of the bulkhead. As the door shut, Emerald had barely made out some semblance of a response before the mechanical hiss of the locking mechanism separated them. Probably forever. She wanted to say 'come with me.' Salem would kill him, as sure as she breathed. But Hazel had refused and helped her anyway; Emerald felt she would never be able to repay him, but ... maybe she didn’t have to._

_'For someone else I couldn’t save.'_

_As she’d sat in the pilot’s seat of the bulkhead, auto pilot set for her to land in Mistral’s outer territory where it was no longer watched over, no enemy forces to greet her; Emerald hadn’t stopped the tears that finally spilled over. A hand curved across her stomach, the thief had struggled not to curl in on herself as her shoulders shook, while sobs filled the empty space of the cockpit._

_She’d tried to find Mercury. Eventually time had run out and Emerald had made the decision to choose her safety and their child’s, over his. He could be angry with her all he liked but he caused this too, it wasn’t just her ... she had thought that it was them against everything. Stupidly so._

_By the time the bulkhead had breached Mistral airspace, tears had long dried upon the soft skin of her cheeks, and Emerald’s heart was hardened. She couldn’t afford to make stupid mistakes anymore. It wasn’t just her life on the line._

Now greeted with the bustling towns of Mistral’s lower levels; exhausted, hungry and feeling like she could sleep for a week, Emerald almost felt herself shift. Step back into an old life she never wanted to go back to. There was nowhere else to go, no more saviours coming with glass shoes or violet grey eyes; just her and a new life she had to protect, all while evading whoever would still be snapping at her heels. The thought of Tyrian send a shudder down her spine, the chill threatening her very ability to breathe. She had to find somewhere to hide, now.

The hoodie of her stolen jacket pulled up over her head, Emerald sighed, and stepped forward into the crowd. _Disappearing once more._


	2. the beginning.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The lower levels of Mistral were always a shit hole.
> 
> High rates of crime, ranging from petty theft to gambling to murder, a person couldn’t go five feet without coming across someone trying to rob them or fight them. It was the perfect place for a lot of unsavoury types that Remnant had to offer to hide. No one asked a thing and everyone minded their own business, when the cops or a Huntsman came knocking, well ... they didn’t get very far.
> 
> They didn’t know where to look. They didn’t know how to find the rats.
> 
> He did.

_Five months._

Emerald thought it would pass quicker than it had, but nope; the past few months had been a repeating cycle of waking up, vomiting her guts into the toilet, hustling money and spending her nights jolting awake at the slightest sound. She wasn’t so stupid to think she had escaped Salem’s grasp so easily. If Hazel wasn’t killed outright, no matter how much he had given up to help her in those last moments; Emerald would bet hard lien that Salem would get her destination out of him sooner or later.

Everything sounded like the mechanical click and hiss of _his_ tail in the dark of night.

A sigh and the green haired girl rose from where she was laying on her bed, hand instinctively falling to cradle the very prominent bump as she settled upright. A tired glance to the bedside alarm and a groan followed, head dipping with hair falling over her face. _Four fucking hours._

“You didn’t fuckin’ help.” A punitive glare aimed down at her bump, there was no fire in it. Only a begrudging acceptance and affection as her hand moved from cradling her stomach to rubbing it lightly, feeling a soft kick in return. “Yeah, thanks for the show last night. I’m gonna’ have bruises on my kidneys for a month, brat.” Another kick followed and her tongue clicked against the roof of her mouth. “Gonna’ be a kicker.”

_Just like your dad._

The thought popped in her head before she could stop it; lips immediately pinched into a tight frown as the familiar sting in her eyes and tightness of her throat followed. No, no she wasn’t going to fucking cry over him anymore. Emerald was _done_ crying over Mercury fucking Black. Standing up faster than she should’ve, teeth grit at the stab of pain that twanged in her lower spine, and despite her best efforts, she was damned to do anything but feel the tears spring in her eyes. _Hopefully Salem got him._ The moment the thought passed, she regretted it. Felt her blood run cold and her heart stopped at the thought of Mercury dead, lying somewhere, killed by a woman no one had a hope of stopping. All on her own, how could she hope to keep herself safe? Her _baby_ safe?

“Fucking ... fuck!” An open palm came to smack against the bedside table, dull pain that followed doing little to distract Emerald from the way her tears slid down her cheeks, leaving wet trails in their wake. Falling apart like an ancient statue, crumbling at the seams. “ _I can’t do this._ ”

The admission whimpered out, Emerald practically hunched over the bedside table as a kick thumped in her belly again. If she wanted to, she could almost believe her little bump was doing so in sympathy, telling her she wasn’t alone.

But for the first time in months, all alone in the tiny, shitty apartment she was holed up in, that’s all she felt.

* * *

The lower levels of Mistral were always a shit hole.

High rates of crime, ranging from petty theft to gambling to murder, a person couldn’t go five feet without coming across someone trying to rob them or fight them. It was the perfect place for a lot of unsavoury types that Remnant had to offer to hide. No one asked a thing and everyone minded their own business, when the cops or a Huntsman came knocking, well ... they didn’t get very far.

They didn’t know where to look. They didn’t know how to find the rats.

He did.

It was harder than he thought to find Emerald in the maze of apartments that made up Mistral’s first lower level, the perfect place for a former street rat to hide, and that made him proud. She wasn’t stupid like Cinder thought, wasn’t a brainless teenager who could be taken advantage of; Emerald was smart and she could think on her feet and she knew how to run, hide, _survive._

She was a survivor. That’s why she’d gotten away from Salem, long before he had ... she’d had that final push, that thing to push her to _leave_. Had she not been that for him? A sharp shake of his head and he slipped down the side alley, slipping behind a pair of men huddled together, muttering low under their breath, and a faunus curled up in the doorway of a shop in a ratty blanket. Just more poor chumps for the world to chew up and spit out.

_Are you really the one to be callin’ anyone a chump, boy?_

A familiar stab of anger burned in his chest and Mercury’s head dipped, breath exhaled slow as his jaw clenched tight. Months of silence and he pipes up _now?_ Fucking sods law. “Shut it, old man.” Like he’d ever had the balls to say this when the bastard was alive. It was a one way ticket to drills all night while sporting a split lip or a black eye. Mercury had more sense than that. Still, the sound of Marcus’ laughter echoing in his head spurred a wave of nausea over the mercenary that he barely shook off with a vicious shake.

Marcus wasn’t going to ruin this. Not now. _He’d found Emerald._

He had to make it right.

From the outside, the small flat that barely passed for a living space for someone looked entirely unassuming, the outside of it lined with rotting grey brick and the roof sporting more than a few handfuls of bare patches, the shingles long gone. Much like near every other house and flat in the streets of Lower Mistral; it was a place nearly destitute, where the good tried to make the best of things and the bad … well they took advantage of the good. Mercury brushed away the uncomfortable stab in his chest. It was a dog eat dog world, either you got strong or you got ate, those were the rules.

The gated entrance to the stairs leading up to her flat were padlocked, but nothing he couldn’t pick loose and toss aside in a few moments. Sometimes there were advantages to the tricks and skills his shitfuck of a father drilled into his head throughout his childhood.

_See? Don’t tell me I never did nothin’ for you._

Mercury didn’t grace that with a response, only a roll of his eyes. Technically he couldn’t argue and he sure as hell wasn’t about to do so with the _voice in his head_. Maybe spending that much time in Evernight had really messed him up.

Yeah. That was it.

A scoff under his breath and Mercury slowly guided the gate back into the frame so the metal didn’t make any noise; that was the last thing he wanted to do. Slipping up the stairs, his back kept to the moss covered brick wall, violet eyes peered in the darkness of the entryway to the flat. It was all … quiet. His heart squeezed painfully in his chest for a moment, as the thought that maybe his information was wrong, maybe Emerald had already run to a new location again, ran through his mind. The last of his favours he had by throwing around his last name and Marcus’s oppressive ghost had all been burned up getting him here. If Emerald wasn’t here … he didn’t know what to do.

Mercury’s hand trembled as he made quick work of the shitty lock on the large window beside the front door. The door was too easy, giving too many opportunities for him to be blindsided, but it looked like the window was hidden away in what looked like a _genkan_ , a place for Emerald to put her shoes aside and anything else she didn’t want to bring into the flat proper. Typical Mistralian digs.

With a soft click, Mercury pushed the now unlocked window open; another quick glance around to make sure no one could see his act of breaking and entering before he slipped inside, Surprisingly quiet considering his bulk and the hulking pieces of metal he called legs. He’d learned pretty quickly both as a child and again as an adult the value of _silence_.

The flat was silent, but homely. If Emerald was still here, she’d taken great lengths to make the small space seem liveable compared to the rest of the shitty houses that her place was enclosed by. There were paintings hung up on the wall, rugs scattered along the wooden floor. While all the lights were off, candles still burnt where they were sporadically placed on shelves along the hallway. It gave off an almost entrancing vibe, like the flat wasn’t real.

A shake of his head and mercury stepped cautiously further into the flat, not wanting to waste any more time admiring the scenery. He had to find out if Emerald was here or … or if he’d lost her for good.

The kitchen was clear, the small living area too. A glance into the bathroom found that empty too, but full of baby products, the sight of which made Mercury struggle to catch his breath for a moment. The very reason emerald had run came rushing back to the forefront of his mind, blinding him. She’d left because she was pregnant with his child, because she couldn’t bare to raise them in that cursed place or even worse … watch as she lost them. And he’d done nothing to stop her, or fuck, _join her._ He’d been such a fucking coward.

Out of all the things he ached to tell her, sorry was the first.

Biting the inside of his cheek to pull himself out of his self pitying reverie, Mercury turned on his heel to move towards the back of the flat, the only room left was the bedroom. Pushing it open, he stepped inside with a hopeful edge to his sharp gaze; only to feel the bitter sting of disappointment when that too was empty. He’d failed, he hadn’t found —

_Crack!_

The punch to his jaw sent the mercenary off kilter, stars exploding in his vision as pure agony rang out through his face; it was by pure luck that he managed to gather enough of his senses to avoid the sharp edge of a blade slicing through his throat. Ducking down, his foot struck out in a long swipe, and the cry that followed as the body tumbled to the ground felt like ice down his spine.

“Emerald!”

Both froze like that, Emerald resting on her elbow with one of Thief’s Respite still aimed up at him as Mercury was hunched over her, violet eyes wide and disbelieving. She was here. She was _here_.

And he’d just knocked her to the floor while she was near 8 months pregnant. A panicked glance down and the sheer size of the swollen bump that was barely hidden by her night shirt made his mouth run dry; Emerald had always been slight, small, never having had enough to eat that she was barely on the right side of lean … now she looked like she’d swallowed a beach ball.

When his gaze flickered back up, all he saw in those deep red eyes was a burning anger and he wondered just how she hadn’t already shot him square in the forehead. Only the slight tremble of her grip around her weapon showed the assassin’s hesitation. Barest of affection bleeding through all the hurt.

“Emerald, I—”

“ _Shut up._ ”

Dutifully, he fell silent. Even with the echo of a dead man’s laughter in his head.

“What are you doing here, Mercury? How, how did you even get here?” A beat of fear and her eyes narrowed, finger resting on the trigger with a snarl. "Did they fucking follow you?”

“No! No, I made sure.” A bitter laugh and the cold of Thief’s Respite nuzzled in the hollow under his chin had Mercury swallowing dryly.

“You made sure. You couldn’t even get away from Tyrian but _you made sure._ ” Her sneer hurt, but not as much as the distrust in her eyes. For so long while they were with Cinder, even with Emerald’s sickeningly blind devotion to the maiden, it’d been _them._ They were a team, wherever he was so was she and vice versa. Now the gap between them had never felt larger and Mercury didn’t know how to fix it. He never fixed things, he wasn’t _built that way_.

Words failed him. All the things he’d thought to say once he found her, spiralling round and round in his mind as he went through each of Mistral’s slums, one by one to find her … only for nothing to come when he needed to. Frustration burned in his gut, he had to say something, he had to tell her.

Emerald just scoffed and lowered her weapon, tossing it aside so she could pull herself up. What could he say to her to fix this? Fix him not being there when she needed him? Mercury didn’t know, but he rose up all the same, stepping towards her with hands palm up in a sign of surrender. All his walls were down with her, they always should’ve been.

Emerald regarded him with suspicion, lips curling into a snarl. “What do you want from me, Mercury? You wanna’ join me now, play happy families? I gave you that chance back in Evernight and you didn’t take it! You _stayed!_ ”

“I know.” Two simple words to admit his fault, but not enough for the woman he had wronged. She was out for blood, that burning anger returning to her eyes at full flame. Emerald stepped forward, hands launching forward to shove at his chest, sending the mercenary stumbling back a little before he righted his footing. Mercury’s hands remained palm up, he wasn’t going to fight back. _She needed this_.

“You know?!” What was meant as a roar of anger, came out little more than a whimper as she shoved him again, the beginnings of tears welling up in her eyes. Emerald was never an angry crier, but it seems the grasp of pregnancy had changed a lot. “You know what, huh? That you’re a coward? I _needed_ you, Mercury; I fucking needed you and you did nothing!”

Mercury only let his head fall, expecting another shove. He had no defence to give, not one meaningful enough in the face of her wrath, of the hurt he’d left her with. Near eight months all alone, with his child growing in her belly and all that stress and fear she had to live with, carry every day while struggling to get by … he wished he’d been there to help. That he’d left with her the day she ran. But he hadn’t been.

A pained cry from Emerald snapped the man out of his internal self loathing, head jolting up to see that all the anger had bled from her body, replaced with a deep seated fear as trembling hands cradled her swollen bump. Her whole body seemed to shake, a sweat breaking out on her dark skin as the puddle at her feet spread.

“Shit, Emerald—”

Her knees buckled, Mercury reaching out to grab her before the pregnant woman could fall to the floor and injure herself even further. Guilt stabbed in his gut; the way she’d fallen to the ground before, her heightened emotions as she screamed him, _had he caused this?_

“ _Mercury._ ” His name echoed with another pained whimper had Mercury gently lifting Emerald up so she was cradled in his arms, careful not to move her too harshly as he quickly moved over to the bed. He had no time to place any sheets down, only carefully set the green haired girl down as the beginning of her contractions had pain running through her body. Emerald knew she’d had worse … but it wouldn’t be this manageable for long; she thought she had _longer_ , another month at least to … to do something. Find somewhere, one of the hospitals available to Mistral’s poorer populations that she could give birth in and then both she and her baby could disappear.

It wasn’t the best of plans but it was all she’d had. Mercury wasn’t there.

But now he was.

“Mercury—”

“I’m here, hey. I’m here.” His hands were impossibly gentle as he cradled her clammy face. Even with the fear in both of their eyes at this new, terrifying situation they were thrust into, a wave of comfort washed over her. He was here. He wasn’t going anywhere and while she was still angry, right now there was a more pressing issue.

Like the fact she was about to give birth to their child a month early. The realization drew a fearful noise from Emerald as one hand cradled her bump, the other gripping the sheets as panic and pain threatened to overwhelm and drown out the brief calm she had felt. Eight months wasn’t terrible but it was still too soon, they weren’t prepared, so much could go so wrong—

“ _Emerald._ ” The sharp, firm edge to his voice drew her attention, tearful red eyes gazing up. There was now a firm resolve in Mercury’s gaze as he kept her steady. “I know it’s scary, but you gotta’ work with me here, okay?” A nod, and visible relief ran through him. “ _Okay._ we need towels, and you need to lie back, get as comfortable as you can.”

A pure shot of fear as Mercury pulled away, Emerald bit the inside of her cheek to push it down as she followed his instructions, moving some of her pillows to cradle her upper body as she lay down on the bed more flatly. The pain was still manageable in a sense, coming in somewhat steady waves but from what she’d read, Emerald knew that it would soon get a lot more painful. She secretly hoped it was sooner rather than later, she’d never been good at handling pain.

The bed dipped some as Mercury knelt on it, his hand tapping at Emerald’s thigh to motion for her to lift her lower body a little so he could quickly slip the towels beneath her; the soothing way his hand rubbed her thigh as a good job making Emerald’s eyes shut for a moment.

“Don’t fall asleep on me. We still gotta’ push that sucker out.”

“ _We?_ ”

A wry laugh, and Emerald couldn’t resist the smirk that tugged at her lips. This was good. It was almost … almost like it was back then, before any of this happened. 

“Well, it’s not like I’m sitting here with my thumb up my ass. Besides, look at this handsome face you get to stare at while you do it.”

“Oh, I can think of something else I wanna’ — _ohhh!_ ”

Whatever quippy retort Emerald had wanted to throw back at the other had quickly been cut off when what felt like the worst period cramp she’d ever felt hit her, almost making her entire body jolt. _Fuck_. She couldn’t do this. A shake of her head and tears fell down her cheeks, leaving translucent tracks over dark skin in their wake. “ _I can’t do this, Merc._ ” She wanted it to stop.

Mercury’s hand clasped around hers firmly as he settled beside Emerald, noticing the rapid way her chest rose and fell as the waves of pain began to increase, pushing past her threshold. mercury could be characterized by those who knew him as only out for himself but in that moment, all he wanted was to take that pain from her.

_She made you into a real pushover, didn’t she, boy?_

_No_ , he didn’t get to push in on this. Mercury grit his teeth, pushing every remnant, every lingering ghost of his father aside to focus on the woman in front of him, the way she squeezed his hand so tightly as she pushed through the pain, to bring his, _their_ child into the world. For a brief moment, Mercury wondered if Marcus had done this, if he’d even been there at all. What had happened to his mother was a mystery lost to time, the only man who held the answers long dead by the son he broke and tried to remake in his own twisted image.

Marcus failed. And he didn’t get to control Mercury any longer.

“I need you to breathe with me, okay? Em, you’re strong, you’re so strong. You can do this.”

When Emerald looked up at him, there was the slightest hint of hesitance, and Mercury accepted that. He knew this wouldn’t magically fix things, the way he’d hurt her. But he wasn’t going to be a coward and run. Not again. A reassuring squeeze of her hand and Emerald nodded, mimicking the way Mercury took in quick, steady breaths, exhaled them. Whenever a contraction hit, she was allowed to squeeze his hand until he swore he could feel the bones crack and grind together, Emerald’s teeth gritted tight as sweat dripped from her forehead, a low, pained wail seething in between.

A glance between her legs and Mercury’s heart nearly stopped when he saw the head crowning, a delirious smile tugging at his lips. She was doing it, their baby was almost here. Another squeeze of her hand and Mercury shifted, kept only in place as Emerald clung to him, shaking her head. “Em, a few more pushes and we’re done. I can almost see the head.” Excitement shone in her tear filled eyes at that. “ _T_ _he head?_ ” Mercury nodded and felt his heart stop again at the pure bliss in her smile, mixing with the pain. Slowly, she let his hand go and Mercury took his place between her legs. A brief pause and he snorted.

“ _What?_ ”

“Just thought about how bein’ like this got us in this situation.” The smirk on his lips almost cost him a pillow to the face. As much as Emerald wanted to curse him out; another, far stronger contraction hit and instead she bared down, a longer pained cry leaving her lips as Mercury guided her along. His hands cradled the head of their child, slowly, slowly, until they slipped out all at once with a final cry from Emerald as she collapsed back against the pillow, her chest rising and falling raggedly. “Em, _you did it._ ”

Grabbing one of the spare towels, Mercury did his best to gently clean their baby of any gunk clinging to soft skin, only stopping to revel in the marvel of him being a father, of this actually being their baby when he moved to help Emerald place the squawking infant on her now bare chest. Exhausted and dazed, he could do nothing but sit back beside her as Emerald cradled their child closer with a trembling smile, tears still falling down her cheeks.

Maybe he shouldn’t. He felt almost hesitant to intrude on this moment, like he hadn’t earned it. Emerald … she’d done all the hard work, she’d carried on while he hadn’t been there, she did the grunt work of bringing them into the world. Almost as if she sensed his trepidation, Emerald’s free hand was gentle but firm as she grasped his. Deep red eyes were tired but _soft_ as she gazed up at him.

“Your daughter needs you too, Mercury.”

A _daughter._ Mercury felt winded, like his whole world had turned on its head in that moment. _He had a daughter_. A glance at Emerald, and it shifted again. Not just a daughter … a family. He had to protect them.

He wasn’t going to repeat history.

A squeeze of Emerald’s hand, a promise; and Mercury leant over to press a kiss to the smooth skin of his daughter’s head, another high wail from the baby only making him coo softly. “It’s okay, _малыш_. I’m here.” Emerald’s smile only widened at the promise, curling up between Mercury and their daughter. She wasn’t foolish enough to think it would all be okay, not with what was outside the walls of the flat, what could be set on course for them but … in this moment, right now? It didn’t matter.

_They were **together.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's finally done, dedicated to cat ♥
> 
> also the term mercury uses at the end hopefully translates into "little one" & also feeds into my russian!mercury headcanon uwu.  
> hope you guys enjoyed this!

**Author's Note:**

> so, this is my first chapter fic / two shot; let's hope it goes well lmao. this was going to be much longer but this felt like a good place to cut off and let some tension build. emerald's all alone, mercury is missing & tyrian is having too much fun at their expense. i promise i love them : (((
> 
> title comes from paper route's song glass heart hymn.  
> i am currently taking prompts at my tumblr, ironpines!


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